MarkWhittington writes: "The petition created at the White House site, "We the People," for the United States to build a "Star Wars"-style "Death Star" seems, at first glance, to be another example, like secession, of people using the petition process to engage in whimsy.

However, while the concept of building space based military platforms the size of a small moon, as depicted in "Star Wars," may seem grandiose, the idea of weapons systems in space is based on mainstream military thinking."